Why did Jesus tell His disciples to go ahead of Him and get a donkey?

by ROBERT KRANTZ May 26, 2022

He was God. Couldn’t the donkey just be there when He arrived?

In fact, in one of the Gospels, the donkey was just there.

Yet, in the gospel of Matthew it was written, as Jesus approached Jerusalem (for what we now call Palm Sunday), He told his disciples, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and he will send them at once." (Matthew 21:1-3)

Why did He make His disciples go through all those actions to get the donkey?

And what really threw me off was the word, “If”, in that passage. It seemed like Jesus wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen.

This seemed so unlike Jesus. For example, look at Matthew 17:27, when Jesus told His disciples to go retrieve a coin from a fish’s mouth to pay the taxes. In that scripture, Jesus is so affirmative in His actions. He tells the disciples go to the lake, find the fish and the coin will be there. Period. No hesitations.

So, why were his instructions to the disciples so different when he told them to get the donkey? Finally, it dawned on me…

As Jesus headed to Jerusalem, He was headed toward His destiny. Jerusalem was where He would be crucified for our salvation.

Riding on the donkey was a fulfillment of scripture and His destiny and all the steps were going to transpire accordingly to God’s plan.

And God had each step planned out.

Likewise, each of us has a destiny that God has planned for us. There is a “Jerusalem” that we are headed towards, in our lives.

What I believe Jesus was trying to teach the disciples and us was that as you fulfill your destiny, God will have all the people, circumstances and answers in place for you. You simply must keep moving towards your destiny.

In Jesus’ day, it was a village, a donkey, and an owner of the donkey. In our day, it might be a business opportunity, a college application, or meeting a soulmate. We must keep moving forward, trusting that God has everything lined up for us.

So, why did Jesus use the word, “If”?

In today’s parlance, it was like Jesus was saying, “If something happens, don’t worry about it… I’ve got this. Here’s what you’ll say and it will be fine.”

So often as we think about making a move in our life, we are defeated by negative thoughts, doubts, and past mistakes. We talk ourselves out of going to “untie the donkey”, never trusting that God has put the right people in the right place and will tell us and them what to say and do.

The key for us is to keep moving toward are destiny and keep going to the places that God guides us and asking for help, follow His instructions and, IF something doesn’t go our way, we must trust that God will let us know exactly how to respond.

Nothing can stop the destiny of your life that God has planned for you. Nothing.

Keep the faith,

Robert Krantz

P.S. I mentioned recently in our Facebook Group – The Faith, Hope and Love Community, we are planning on having a virtual Red Carpet premier of my latest movie, A Marriage Made in Heaven, sometime in August. Stay tuned! You will be able to walk the Red Carpet from your living room couch .